Byju’s acquires yet another coding-for-kids startup, this time an American one

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Byju’s acquires yet another coding-for-kids startup, this time an American one
Tynker
  • Byju’s emphasised that the acquisition of Tynker would help the company accelerate its market presence in the US.
  • Tynker is used by over 60 million users and 100,000 schools in 150 countries, the company claims.
  • Prior to this, Byju’s had acquired WhiteHat Jr last year, which was folded into Byju’s Future School offering.
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Edtech giant Byju’s has made another move towards gaining control of the North American market, with the acquisition of US-based coding-for-kids platform Tynker.

Interestingly, Byju’s had acquired Indian coding for kids platform WhiteHat Jr for $350 million. The company had folded the three-year-old company into its Byju’s Future School offering to offer its services in the North American market.

WhiteHat Jr had also expanded its services from coding-for-kids to maths, English and vocational classes. The company’s founder Karan Bajaj was leading the Byju’s Future School until last month, before he quit and Trupti Mukker took over. Mukker was Byju’s head of customer experience and delivery prior to this.

Another interesting fact about the acquisition of Tynker is that it is the third startup in Byju’s portfolio that offers coding classes for kids. The company had earlier acquired rival Toppr, which offers coding classes in the form of Toppr Codr.

Byju’s, in its press note, emphasised that the acquisition of Tynker would help the company accelerate its market presence in the US as the platform is used by over 60 million users and 100,000 schools in 150 countries.

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Founded in 2012 by Krishna Vedati, Srinivas Mandyam and Kelvin Chong, Tynker has raised over $10 million to date from Reach Capital, 500 Startups, New Ground Ventures, Relay Ventures and Cervin Ventures.

“Joining forces with Tynker will unlock the ability for us to bring imagination to life for hundreds of millions of students through coding… Our goal is to ignite a love for programming in children globally and we feel strongly that Tynker's creative coding platform and approach to making programming fun and intuitive for kids will get us there even faster,” Byju Raveendran, founder and chief executive of Byju’s, said.

The Bengaluru-based edtech firm had also acquired US-based Epic and Whodat, Singapore-based Great Learning.

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